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Response by the Cabinet Member: Thank you for your question regarding the handling of recyclable material at the North Powys Bulking Facility at Abermule. The delivery of a waste and recycling service in a County the size of Powys is a significant logistical challenge, and this is why there is a requirement for three bulking facilities, one in the South, Mid and North. Material delivered to these sites is bulked until there is a full articulated lorry load, which is then collected by the reprocessors on a pre-arranged schedule. Other than the cans and plastics stream, there is no further sorting or baling required and full loads in terms of weight are achieved. This applies to green waste, paper and card, glass and residual where accepted. The food waste is collected on a round robin basis on the same lorry from both Ceredigion and Powys bulking facilities and taken to an Anaerobic Digestion plant. The only waste stream that will benefit from further sorting and subsequent baling is cans and plastics and this currently takes place at the facility in Brecon. At this site, cans and plastics are loaded onto a picking belt where operatives will remove cartons, coffee cups and crisp tubes for recycling, as well as removing any contaminated material. The steel cans are then removed by an overband magnet with the aluminium taken off via an eddy current separator. What is left is the plastic pots, tubs and trays which then fall into a hopper which feeds the baler. Steel and aluminium are then baled separately. This process not only maximises payloads, but also ensures the best possible income is achieved for this material from the end processor. The sorting belt and baler is a substantial piece of equipment and a significant investment. When the sorting and baling equipment was initially procured, an exercise was carried out to ascertain the most cost effective solution across the County, the outcome of which was to have the equipment in one of the bulking facilities and then transport the cans and plastics from the other sites to this location, which is done in house with an articulated lorry. The baling equipment was installed before any progress was made with the site in Abermule and the reason Brecon was chosen was down to the fact that it was the only site with enough space to accommodate the equipment at that time. If you would like to visit our site at Brecon to see first hand how the cans and plastics are sorted, you would be very welcome. We are also able to accommodate visits from school and community groups by prior arrangement. I hope I have been able to capture all of your queries but if there are any other questions then please ask.
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